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Slavery reference in text riles mom
By BRIDGET GUTIERREZ
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/28/04
When Michele Mitchell sat down to study history with her daughter last spring, she assumed the third-grade book wouldn't say much about black history. But she wasn't prepared to read that slaves were "brought" here to "help" others.
"It belittles, for me, the experience," said Mitchell, who is African-American. "I understand it's third grade . . . [but] I had a major issue with the word 'help.&
39; "
(Yeah, "help" is a tough word...)
After achieving partial success with her complaints in Fayette County, Mitchell said she now intends to
ask the state Board of Education to ban the book --"The Story of Our Georgia Community" --for glossing over slavery and African-American history.
Schools in Fayette County, whe
re Mitchell and her daughter Onika Smallwood live, have been using the 64-page paperback for about two years to supplement social studies texts. The book, which comes in a kit with maps and a teacher's manual, is used in third-grade classrooms across metro Atlanta --including some in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Henry counties --according to the publisher. Although the book is approved for use in classrooms statewide, other systems, including Atlanta, Marietta and Decatur schools, do not use it.
Onika, now in fourth grade, remembers trying not to cry when her class read about slaves "helping"
; pick cotton in the Georgia fields. "We were forced! We weren't even helping!" she said. "That wasn't right. I knew in my heart it wasn't right."
(No, it wasn't right. If we had known what trouble you people were going to be, we would have picked our own cotton!)
Don Klein, owner of Social Studies Resources in Greensboro, calls the third-grade kit his "best seller." Th
e book, which was written by Klein's wife, covers some of the lessons children are supposed to learn in third grade, such as the origin of local communities and how they have changed.
The book provides an overview of Georgia's geography, native peoples (the Creeks and Cherokees) and history from its establishment as a British colony to the present day. While the book offers a few paragraphs on black people's roles in the civil rights movement, only a few sentences refer to slavery, including the one that offended
Mitchell, which said slaves were "brought to America to help" work the farms.
Noting that the book has been approved by the state Board of Education, Klein said this is the first tim
e he's heard a complaint about the content.
"Frankly, I heard what her complaint was and I still don't understand the nature of her complaint," he said. "It's only a 64-page book. It's not going to be all-inclusive about anything, including African-Americans. It's a survey book."
Cathy Geis, Fayet
te's social studies coordinator, reviewed the book before it was purchased and defends its use. The main focus of third-grade social studies is citizenship, communities and government, which, she said, is covered in the students' main textbook. Geis said the kit was purchased because it is closely aligned to the state curriculum and provides hands-on activities for students.
"The only reason that this booklet . . . has any history is really to hit o
n the Native Americans that are specifically mentioned in our curriculum," she said. "That's really the only piece of history that teachers are expected to teach [in third grade].&q
uot; Any other history, including that of the Civil War and slavery, doesn't normally start in Georgia schools until fourth grade.
At East Fayette Elementary School, where Onika is enrolled, the books have been stockpiled. Last spring, a 16-member panel of teachers, administrators and parents, which was responding to a formal complaint from Mitchell, asked that teachers s
top using the books as student readers.
Last week the Fayette County Board of Education denied Mitchell's request that the book be removed from other schools. But the board also said teachers who use the supplement must use other resources to make up for the information it lacks, and they asked Mitchell, who works for the APEX Museum, an African-American history museum in Atlanta, to help them find suitable materials.
&quo
t;I'm happy that they have at least acknowledged that there is a problem with the book," Mitchell said. "But . . . in the long run I would prefer to not see the book used at all
."
Akinyele Umoja, a former public school teacher who now teaches black history at Georgia State University, said it is possible to teach young children about slavery, give a complete picture and still keep the lessons age-appropriate.
Although Georgia history is not covered in any depth until middle school, Umoja said teachers should introduce black history to children in elementary school. Teachi
ng ideas such as segregation, he said, can be as simple as giving candy to the boys in a classroom and excluding the girls.
(It's better to really teach it by putting the monkeys on the next plane back to Africa, and leaving the white kids here to actually start getting some studying done, rather than being slowed down having to "teach" little semi-ret
arded negroes, and pretend they're our equals)
"If we want to create a multicultural society, you have to do it at the earliest level," he said. "You
have to do it at the beginning."
Slavery reference in text riles mom
By BRIDGET GUTIERREZ
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/28/04
When Michele Mitchell sat down to study history with her daughter last spring, she assumed the third-grade book wouldn't say much about black history. But she wasn't prepared to read that slaves were "brought" here to "help" others.
"It belittles, for me, the experience," said Mitchell, who is African-American. "I understand it's third grade . . . [but] I had a major issue with the word 'help.&
39; "
(Yeah, "help" is a tough word...)
After achieving partial success with her complaints in Fayette County, Mitchell said she now intends to
ask the state Board of Education to ban the book --"The Story of Our Georgia Community" --for glossing over slavery and African-American history.
Schools in Fayette County, whe
re Mitchell and her daughter Onika Smallwood live, have been using the 64-page paperback for about two years to supplement social studies texts. The book, which comes in a kit with maps and a teacher's manual, is used in third-grade classrooms across metro Atlanta --including some in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Henry counties --according to the publisher. Although the book is approved for use in classrooms statewide, other systems, including Atlanta, Marietta and Decatur schools, do not use it.
Onika, now in fourth grade, remembers trying not to cry when her class read about slaves "helping"
; pick cotton in the Georgia fields. "We were forced! We weren't even helping!" she said. "That wasn't right. I knew in my heart it wasn't right."
(No, it wasn't right. If we had known what trouble you people were going to be, we would have picked our own cotton!)
Don Klein, owner of Social Studies Resources in Greensboro, calls the third-grade kit his "best seller." Th
e book, which was written by Klein's wife, covers some of the lessons children are supposed to learn in third grade, such as the origin of local communities and how they have changed.
The book provides an overview of Georgia's geography, native peoples (the Creeks and Cherokees) and history from its establishment as a British colony to the present day. While the book offers a few paragraphs on black people's roles in the civil rights movement, only a few sentences refer to slavery, including the one that offended
Mitchell, which said slaves were "brought to America to help" work the farms.
Noting that the book has been approved by the state Board of Education, Klein said this is the first tim
e he's heard a complaint about the content.
"Frankly, I heard what her complaint was and I still don't understand the nature of her complaint," he said. "It's only a 64-page book. It's not going to be all-inclusive about anything, including African-Americans. It's a survey book."
Cathy Geis, Fayet
te's social studies coordinator, reviewed the book before it was purchased and defends its use. The main focus of third-grade social studies is citizenship, communities and government, which, she said, is covered in the students' main textbook. Geis said the kit was purchased because it is closely aligned to the state curriculum and provides hands-on activities for students.
"The only reason that this booklet . . . has any history is really to hit o
n the Native Americans that are specifically mentioned in our curriculum," she said. "That's really the only piece of history that teachers are expected to teach [in third grade].&q
uot; Any other history, including that of the Civil War and slavery, doesn't normally start in Georgia schools until fourth grade.
At East Fayette Elementary School, where Onika is enrolled, the books have been stockpiled. Last spring, a 16-member panel of teachers, administrators and parents, which was responding to a formal complaint from Mitchell, asked that teachers s
top using the books as student readers.
Last week the Fayette County Board of Education denied Mitchell's request that the book be removed from other schools. But the board also said teachers who use the supplement must use other resources to make up for the information it lacks, and they asked Mitchell, who works for the APEX Museum, an African-American history museum in Atlanta, to help them find suitable materials.
&quo
t;I'm happy that they have at least acknowledged that there is a problem with the book," Mitchell said. "But . . . in the long run I would prefer to not see the book used at all
."
Akinyele Umoja, a former public school teacher who now teaches black history at Georgia State University, said it is possible to teach young children about slavery, give a complete picture and still keep the lessons age-appropriate.
Although Georgia history is not covered in any depth until middle school, Umoja said teachers should introduce black history to children in elementary school. Teachi
ng ideas such as segregation, he said, can be as simple as giving candy to the boys in a classroom and excluding the girls.
(It's better to really teach it by putting the monkeys on the next plane back to Africa, and leaving the white kids here to actually start getting some studying done, rather than being slowed down having to "teach" little semi-ret
arded negroes, and pretend they're our equals)
"If we want to create a multicultural society, you have to do it at the earliest level," he said. "You
have to do it at the beginning."
